roblog21

iPhone testing.

2012-02-06T11:52:00.004-05:00

I recently moved from t-mobile monthly unlimited voice and data plan using an HTC Nexus One running a stock android gingerbread 2.3.6 (my favorite phone of all time) to an iPhone 4 (8gB) running iOS 5.0.1 on Verizon's network. I am going to be posting praise and exposing annoyances/challenges encountered over the next few weeks.

Motorola Xoom

2012-01-15T19:27:00.005-05:00

I bought a 3G Moto Xoom for $380 very lightly used from a private craigslist seller in NYC. I have been using it for 4 months and have to say I am very impressed. I have my issues with it for sure but I can't say the experience I am enjoying would be worth double the price.

Pro's
1)Android Honeycomb OS gives a wonderful web browsing experience.
2)it runs FAST. Multi-tasking OS.
3)Netflix app is available for it now and it works splendidly
4) comparatively inexpensive.

Cons
1) AC adapter charging cord is separate from the data cord. (micro usb is only for data and not for power)
2)I can't use itunes (oh wait. that is a huge PLUS)
3) ok this one is serious. The quote below mentions some pretty rad audio apps that truly blow away anything being developed for android. The Android Market currently pales in comparison but is getting better every day.

http://www.55tablets.com/samsung/ipad-2-vs-xoom-vs-optimus-pad-vs-galaxy-tab-10-vs-touchpad-vs-playbook/

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/did-motorola-xoom-sales-really-tank/12498

RE: Did Motorola Xoom sales really tank?
@Peter Perry - It's not about mega-pixel-this or SD-Card that - you're talking about hardware in a software fight. The Xoom and the iPad2 are essentially the same from a hardware perspective. Both are a glass capacitative touchscreen powered by dual-core Arm processors. The difference in pixels or clockspeed or storage capacity is inconsequential to the normal person. What is different is the OS that drives them and more importantly, the ecosystem of apps, services, and accessories that define what a person can actually DO with the devices that is lightyears apart. For music, show me anything even close to Garageband, or Korg iMS-20, or Rebirth or iElectribe on the Xoom. There MIGHT be a crap wannabe free beatbox app some kid wrote over a weekend but it will be a Froyo app that looks like crap running on a tablet. The iPad has all 4 and they are truly amazing pro music creation apps. You know ones that bands like Gorillaz used to produce their last album on. Show me anything close to Numbers, Pages, and Keynote. Nope you can't, because Microsoft isn't porting Office to Android anytime soon and Google isn't up to the task. How about iMovie for editing HD movies. Sorry, Xoom just doesn't have it or anything in the same class really. How about the best 3D games from id or EA or Rockstar? Or Turbotax or The Elements, or Netflix, yada yada yada... Nobody cares that the Xoom has a SD Card slot (disabled until who knows when by the way) when you have an adapter for the iPad that actually works. Or it has more pixels or whatever. At the end of the day all you can do with a Xoom is browse the web and pat yourself on the back that at least those Flash ads are showing up, even if they are a little choppy. While the iPad has a million other things going for it. Android has no clothes on in the tablet space where carrier deals and subsidies don't matter and voice calls aren't the killer app. We'll see how this plays out over time but Apple is mopping the floor with the other guys right now. It's not even close.

Steak Pr0n

2012-01-11T03:49:00.002-05:00

http://www.debragga.com/products.asp?cat=39
http://www.rosenkransfarms.com/
http://thebrooklynstar.com/

super cows make super steaks.
--------------

On an idyllic corner of the Finger Lakes along the banks of Lake Cayuga exists a micro-climate where the mist of the lake transforms the grass into an ideal grazing land full of plush, luscious feed for cattle where the incredible Rosenkrans breed is reaised. "The Black Baldies,” a blend of Black Angus and Polled Hereford cows, is noted for its beautiful marbling and tastier meat. The calves are raised on the pasture alongside their mothers for the first seven months and then “fence line weaned” to minimize the stress of leaving their mothers. The fence line weaning process is the most humane way to separate calves from their mothers. The calves are also slowly introduced to hay that is bailed on the Rosenkrans farm and are slaughtered at 14 months of age. All of the feed and forages are sustainably raised on the Rosenkrans Farm. The cattle are naturally and humanely raised FREE of antibiotics and hormones!

Dell Perc S300

2011-12-06T15:32:00.006-05:00

8149: Acronis Bootable Media Does Not Support Dell PERC S300 or S100 RAID

http://kb.acronis.com/content/8149

this took up way too much of my weekend.

a client asked me to image an old PowerEdge 2850 and slap it into a new AMD powered Dell PowerEdge r415.. imaging the older system with its PERC 5i hardware RAID posed no challenge. Not so with the new PowerEdge R415 and it's Software based "windows only" PERC S300 RAID controller.
I recommended that the client migrate applications (Peachtree accounting and a few other legacy apps + 200 gigs of files) and also to purchase a hardware based PERC H700 RAID controller.

Election day November 2011- polling place

2011-11-08T12:42:00.004-05:00

http://gis.nyc.gov/vote/ps/index.htm?number=688&street=10th+avenue&borough=Manhattan&lang=en

As of: 11/08/2011
Poll Site: Park West High School
Poll Site Number: 11220
Address: 525 West 50 Street, Manhattan
Voter Entrance: 525 West 50 Street
Accessible Entrance: 525 West 50 Street

A park will replace tunnel 3 construction site. "when" is still unclear

2011-11-05T11:55:00.007-04:00

Tunnel 3 construction site block 1077 lot 29 in Hell's

Block 1077, Lot 29 was acquired by the New York City Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP) pursuant to a Uniform Land Use
Review Procedure (ULURP) application for site selection in 1993. CB4
and the community have been advocating for park/community open
space on the site since 1993. Correspondence has been ongoing since
then between DEP, Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR), CB4,
local elected officials, and the block association, all expressing a
commitment that the site will be developed as a park when construction
of the shaft is complete. DEP will require a permanent easement for
access to the shaft for maintenance, which could easily be
accommodated with surrounding park use.
The Tenth Avenue Site should be developed with housing on the
western portion of the site, over the rail cut, and park on the eastern
portion of the site. The building should run through the block on the
western boundary, with arms pointing east toward Tenth Avenue. After
the rezoning in April 2008, in connection with the Real Estate
Industrials project, the entire site is zoned R8 and maximum FAR is 4.2
per ZR Sections 96-101 and 96-31. A special permit should be used
under ZR 96-104 for maximum height of 99 feet.
The park should be mapped and developed as Hell’s Kitchen Park West,
with facilities for older children and teens (volleyball and basketball
courts moved from Hell’s Kitchen Park), adult seating areas, and lots of
green. The park should include a comfort station, which could be in the

adjacent housing development. DPR should design, the housing
developer should build, and the City should fund the park, which should
be fenced the same as Hell’s Kitchen Park. A full-time attendant, not to
be shared with other parks, should be assigned to Hell’s Kitchen Park
and Hell’s Kitchen Park West.
To absorb neighborhood population, the eastern portion (where
volleyball and basketball courts now are) of Hell’s Kitchen Park should
be renovated, along with other nearby parks including Raymon Aponte
Playground on West 47th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and
May Matthews Park on West 45th and 46th Streets between Ninth and
Tenth Avenues.
In regards to the water tunnel easement on the site, a minimal amount of
renovation is required for hatchways and vent, it should be fenced,
landscaped, and become an integrated element of the park.(CB4, HCC)

SOURCE-

http://www.mta.info/mta/planning/wry/pdf/finalscope.pdf

Great Infographic: Android's version fragmentation problem

2011-10-27T11:59:00.001-04:00

from techcrunch.com

Brooklyn Farmacy

2011-10-27T11:04:00.003-04:00

513 Henry St at Sackett St, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn

Peter Freeman. I never knew him growing up in central Maine but I had heard of him. Been meaning to make it down to his store that has been getting some good press since hearing about it from Meghan Meyers (Solon Maine) a few months back. Best of luck Mr. Freeman! Sounds like you are cooking up some great treats across the river... One of his concoctions (Maple Egg-Cream) just ended up in the best seasonal drinks section of TimeOut New York. Congrats Peter! See you down there soon. Sounds like I can bring my dog too.

http://newyork.timeout.com/things-to-do/2134727/maple-egg-cream-at-brooklyn-farmacy-soda-fountain
(picture source is listed below, which is also a great little intro to the Brooklyn Farmacy)
http://eardog.com/blog/2011/04/brooklyn-farmacy/

Occupy Wall Street.

2011-10-27T07:59:00.005-04:00

Q: what do
Drummers, wikileaks, artists, anarcho capitalists, Ron Paul supporters, the green party, the NYCISO.org, goths, anarchists, democrats, independents, tourists from poland, and me all have in common?

A: We all agree that some heads need to roll after the american public was ripped off by wall street led by Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner, and Larry Summers in 2008. We have been in Zucotti park since early October protesting the criminally lame government response from the Obama Administration. I have personally been down there for only a few days but am completely in solidarity with their basic cause, which is that middle class (and poor, working poor) Americans are not getting a fair shake.

"Labor groups are now praising the Wall Street demonstrators for clarifying a message they say has been theirs all along: that no one on Wall Street has been held accountable for causing the financial crisis, and that cuts to government budgets hurt the lives of working people."

- source city hall news - Bob Master, political director of Communications Workers of America District 1 and a co-chair of the labor-backed Working Families Party

And while many of the city’s larger unions are eager to piggyback on the rising media popularity of the Wall Street protestors, others are more cautious.
“I’m not going down there,” said Greg Floyd, president of the Teamsters Local 237. “I’m looking for permits and I’m looking for an agenda. We want to be supportive, but I need to know what I’m supporting.”

- source city hall news

Here are the pictures I have taken hastily with my cell phone so far.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallaroo/sets/72157627944969602/

Shit my uncle says on facebook

2011-10-08T04:56:00.003-04:00

"I am on some hot chick's lap top that I got drunk with at Chili's and now we are at Day's Inn (Krist I don't even know her name . . .) anyway she's passed out in the bed right now (not much use to me - think I will go through her wallet and see if there is anything worth taking) pretty sure she wont remember me - damn - she's hot - if she starts puking I'm definitely leaving . . ."

My kids brought some ecstasy back from school and wanted me to try it - Woooooo0000OoooooW . . . know I feel like dancing my fucking brains out (and lots of alcohol seems to go quite well with it) guess my living room will have to do (now if only I had a dancing partner - where's that fucking dancing bear!)

Spelling Bee Practice links

2011-09-22T12:32:00.004-04:00

http://www.spellingbeethegame.com/
http://www.jenisfamous.com/dev/category/spelling-word-of-the-day
http://www.learner.org/interactives/spelling/spelling.html?s=g11-12 (for the more basic words that still stump the overly confident)
http://www.spellingbee.com/
http://www.spellingbee.com/champions-and-their-winning-words (it is my goal to know all of these by november 5th)

http://www2.sharonherald.com/herald/nie/spellb/spelllist3.html

I'm actually thinking about starting up an "adult" spelling bee of my own in hell's kitchen.

Turkey or Turkiye? always wondered about this

2011-09-03T11:47:00.002-04:00

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1972/is-turkey-the-bird-named-after-turkey-the-country-or-vice-versa

Dear Straight Dope:

With the recent earthquake in Turkey, I started to think about the fact that there's a bird and a country named the same thing. How did each get its name? And are there any other countries named the same as animals or food? Is there a place named Chicken?

— Aron Siegel

My thoughts exactly Aron! The answer is anything but straight forward.

let me tell you how I dislike your website and its in text advertising.

2011-08-06T13:22:00.005-04:00

http://www.vibrantmedia.com

this company under the good intentions of saving users from having to watch flash banner ads or pop up/pop under video ads have given us something similarly annoying but different. They are to web content as the burdock is to the outdoors. Sticky burrs have a place in the larger scheme of life but they still annoy the hell out of me and unlike arcitum lappa... they have no redeeming qualities such as having a tasty root and leaves. How much of their click through revenue is made completely by mistake. I am willing to bet it is over 30-40% accidental click through with an immediate browser window close.

http://video.about.com/onlineadvertising/Doug-Stevenson--Gabe-Greenberg.htm

this interview makes some sense and I agree... people want control over the content they are viewing. Doug Stevenson has crossed the line with this product. It isn't saving anyone any time or making the web a better place. It is just creating more noise in an already noisy place. I hear some people disagree with me about this, but I think you are wrong.

This topic tends to bring out strong emotions for or against. That, I also find interesting. read the discussion on the bottom of the following article for what I see as a typical argument regarding in text adverts.

http://nanopublishing.weblogsinc.com/2004/12/03/vibrant-media-kicked-out-on-their-ass-by-forbes-ceo-jim/

a melange.

2011-07-30T03:51:00.001-04:00

2011-07-30T03:01:00.004-04:00

Gordon's Great Escape

"In this globe-trotting docuseries, British alpha-chef Gordon Ramsay leaves his comfort zone and travels abroad to learn more about world cuisine, sampling popular dishes in India and Southeast Asia." Netflix description

People have been urging Gordo to get back in the kitchen for some time now, but the message was rather more to leave the cameras behind. He doesn't seem able to turn down the exposure (and presumably, the fees are pretty persuasive in troubled times) but in an attempt to salvage his reputation, he's turned to a different style of programming akin to the Stein or Oliver culinary travelogue / personal journey model. As his production company, Optomen, has it, "we'll gain insights into the real Gordon Ramsay. We'll see a very different side to the nation's favourite chef: more thoughtful, confessional, and open-minded".

quote source

Silicon Alley Talent Fair

2011-06-23T01:16:00.007-04:00

Showed up rather late due to a voip mishap at a client site. The fair was a good time and a good networking event. Had some good conversations with at least a dozen people and ate about that many bahn mi sandwhiches smartly provided by http://www.sonarapp.com/ cold delicious beers were provided by Beerlao thanks to ideeli and beats from DJ eRock.

They had a small panel discussion between the job fair part and the after party featuring some luminaries from the local scene. One of the most memorable speakers was a guy from Pivotal Labs. Not sure if it was Rob Mee but it probably was. He chided everyone for complaining too often about what they want to do and not walking the wallk i.e. going to hackathons, contributing to local tech meetups and generally needing to JUST FREAKING DO IT. Loved his take and wished I could hear more of what he said which was at times difficult. More thoughts on this event to come.

My photos from the event

http://www.myworkster.com/myworkster/page/eventdetail/1587252515

10gen, Adaptly, Adconion Media Group, ADstruc, Animoto, Appdrenaline, AppFirst, AppNexus, Aviary, AxialMarket, Behance, bitly, BurdaStyle, Cellufun, CityPockets, Crowdtap, CrowdTwist, Datalot, EasyBib, Enterproid, EquaMetrics, Everyday Health, Exfm, EXPO, Fast Society, Freedom Teleworkers, GameChanger.io, GateGuru, GetGlue, Gojee, Group Commerce, H.BLOOM, Hara Partners, Harvest, HereWeClick, ideeli, iGottaGuide, IndustryGraph, iSEC Partners, Jibe, JoorAccess, Jumo, KeyWifi, kikin, Kindara Inc., Krossover, Late Nite Labs, LeadPlace, LivePerson, LocalBonus, MLB Advanced Media, Mediamorph, Meetup, MergeSkills, Mind Body Play, Mojiva, NYC Footy, Ology Media, Organic Spread Media, Pagane, Paperless Post, PhotoShelter, Pixable, Quirky, Red Rover, Referio, RentTheRunway, RevTrax, Schoology, Seamless Receipts, SeamlessWeb, SeatGeek, Shapeways, Shelby.tv, Skillshare, Social Media Link, Socialbomb, SocialBon, Solvate, Sonar, Squarespace, StuffBuff, Stylesight, SuburbanMomma, Sulia, TargetSpot, The Echo System, TheLadders, Tremor Media, TwoChop, VYou, Wantworthy, XGraph, Yipit, Yodle

Peter Van Buren's "We Meant Well"

2011-06-11T12:25:00.015-04:00

I heard this entirely sane commentary blaring out of my tivoli radio. Lots of nonsense tends to spout from it but on occasion someone like Peter comes along and makes something people wish to make quagmireishly complex seem simple and just says the plain truth.

We meant well blog

The war’s initial aim was to stop those weapons of mass destruction from being used against us. There were none, so check that off the list. Then it was to get rid of Saddam. He was hanged in 2006, so cross off that one. A little late in the game we became preoccupied with ensuring an Iraq that was “free.” And we’ve had a bunch of elections and there is a government of sorts in place to prove it, so that one’s gotta go, too.

What follows won’t be “investment,” just more waste. The occupation of Iraq, centered around that engorged embassy, is now the equivalent of a self-licking ice cream cone, useful only to itself.

Otis funkmeyer

2011-06-08T10:33:00.003-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN6q_kVlGcM

I get what he is doing here and I think it is fine... if the non PCness of the title gets you please post a comment about your racial critique of the song if you have one.

I have to give it to him, as a shout out song for scientists and luminaries it is awesome, and very funny. as a white man with swagger you know I love this!

I got that

White nigga swag.

trapping. foraging, and panning. Finlay McKay and the new Yukon gold rush

2011-06-04T04:39:00.002-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/magazine/mag-15Gold-t.html

Ayahuasca and my girlfriend

2011-06-03T08:08:00.000-04:00

"Ayahuasca is famous for the visions it generates, and the sense of communion with nature and spiritual reality – as well as more mundane, less pleasant lessons about oneself. The Daime is thought to reveal both positive and various negative or unresolved aspects of the individual, sometimes resulting in difficult or blissful ‘passages’ involving the integration of this dissociated psychological content."

source link

That's funny. from this passage ayahuasca like lessons could also be obtained by spending time with my girlfriend.

CPU Comparison Charts and the mystery that is Pricewatch.com

2011-04-26T20:23:00.005-04:00

I'm always looking for a good website with obvious and easy to interpret lists of the comparative speeds of intel and amd cpu's. I have been paying attention to the market for these "chips" since Intel was making the DX series of processors and Apple was using Motorola 68020 chips circa 1992.

I have seen the i486DX, Pentium, P2, P3, P4, Centrino, Duo, and many more come and all of the miniscule updatyes they do in between those major goalposts. It is mind boggling and absolutely made to confuse. The product managers figured out long ago that making many miniscule upgrades (then pumping each one up like it was the next greatest thing) makes more money than wider spaced major updates. I always kept one or two steps back from the edge of the pricing precipice and I have paid way less over time for that decision! Chip makers taught me valuable lessons about life, marketing, and human behavior. YOU DONT NEED THE FASTEST chip. You really don't! That is, unless you can afford it.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Here is a site I have been using for years as well. Really great concept and seems to be run by a shadowy cabal like organization. They have no about us section... thats pretty shadowy. here is a typical post if you run a quick search for "who runs pricewatch.com"

Does anyone know who owns and runs Pricewatch.com? I don't want guesses or rumors. They don't have any phone numbers on the site, no email, no addresses, etc., and the WHOIS info is no help either. Anybody know?

Reason for asking? Well, I've been using their search engine for several years now, and have seen changes come and go. It would be really nice to know who they are.

LINK

http://www.pricewatch.com/

extending the Amtrak in Maine

2011-04-20T16:39:00.004-04:00

More highspeed passenger rail being extended farther into Maine? I'm all for it. Here is a good article I found on MaineBiz.biz about a plan to extend the Downeaster . The story within the story related to Florida giving up the funds for the Tampa-Orlando high speed Rail is something to follow up on too. It seems like all that funding that was available keeps getting turned down. Chris Christie in New Jersey, Rick Scott in Florida, what about the LA to Vegas high speed line idea that I keep hearing about?

http://www.mainebiz.biz/news47796.html

WOW a plan to link the

North Station/South Station
acela/downeaster tracks.

that will be 10 years and lots of corruption cooked in it but makes sense to make it happen eventually.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North%E2%80%93South_Rail_Link

Blogger is starting to feel really old to me

2011-03-28T22:26:00.004-04:00

The concept of posting things of interest to me to blogger is becoming less and less attractive to me. The loss of long-form anything in my personal day to day life is becoming more and more pronounced. It makes me think of Newspeak from 1984. Is twitter/facebook/foursquare/ a subtle self imposed form of newspeak for our generation? The generation of ADHD and attention deficit issues are going to be the proponents of the 140 word post. Will any Proust's, Micheners remain?

I started posting in August of 2004. I almost can't believe blogspot/blogger has been around that long!

here is a time capsule list for perpetuity.

1) Bike riding around the streets of New York 2010 an 2011... its been fun, dangerous, exhilerating, and amazing! I promise I will wear a helmet more in 2011 Heather!
2) Car crash in front of our place at 688 10th avenue
3) Our trip to Yale for Heather's mock board exam
4) eating way too much egg foo young and sweet and sour chicken at New Kam Wei and Foo King
5) Eating at Il Melograno, Vynyl, Don Giovanni's, Cafe Olin, Terakawa Ramen, Island Burgers and Shakes, the Punjabi Tadka, Bubby's, Mamoun's Falafel, Joe's Pizza, Katz's Delicatessen, Eataly, Toro (spansih food), 92Y, Beach St Eatery, Sullivan Bakery, Francois Payard Bakery on Houston, Amy's bread, Hill Country Barbecue, Dinosaur Barbecue, Daisy Mays BBQ, Brother Jimmy's BBQ, Blue Ribbon Restaurant, Pho Bang, Nha Trang, Pho Pasteur, XO Cafe, Shake Shack on 8th and 44th, and of course much much more! Hey what can I say I came for the food!
6) trips to the MOMA, Statue of liberty, Natural History Museum, NY Public Library, City Hall.
7) All of the bit actors that came into our life since moving here, Al, Marci, Lia, Lance and the staff of Al’s Cycle Solutions (Chase, James, Michael & Ruben). The yemeni guys who work at the corner store's around our place in HK at Nagi's and 5 Brothers (Sonny). The neighborhood characters like Bobby and the Irish brothers who lived in hells kitchen their whole life. The laundromat employees and regulars at "Washland", The people and their dogs that we see all the time, "Bully" the beagle mix, Lance the big Black lab, Michael C. from upstairs and his little old pug JoJo. Jova The counter person at the Cameo on 50th st. last but not least THE SHINERS my job at Sunshine Suites put me on the fast track to meeting people in New York for sure. Joe, Cheni, Jake, Austin, Caitlin, Farid, Sarah Cho, Kristina, Katie Jean, Ahnia, Boumediene and all of the vendors, tenants and rotating cast of characters that make up sunshine suites.
8) Going to see broadway shows and plays with Heather and her family. Thanks for paying for me all those times Heather, I OWE YOU!. Best times so far have been watching "Rock of Ages" over and over! What a great show. Race by David Mamet, "The 39 Steps" at the NWS across from our first place in New York "The Cameo".

that's it for now but the list goes on and on! This was actually kind of fun and I am sure someday I will be happy I made this list.

That is one of my favorite parts about Blogger, I have never been great at keeping a paper diary or journal and this occasionally does the trick for that. I want to remember some of these times I am living when I am 65 (maybe). Who knows I might be having too much of a good time to go back through all of the old blogger posts. If the blogger servers survive until 2065 I will be shocked. Cuneiform lasts! Hard drives and all of the fads in storage will come and go. Might want to start transposing some of the important stuff onto clay tablets sooner than later.

Good Will Hunting and Me

2011-02-26T07:58:00.003-05:00

So if you know me well you know I like to go out and dance at after hours clubs and absolutely worship dance music. I also get accused (jokingly mostly) of being gay quite often because, well, it's hard to explain why you are 30 year old man and go out dancing at mixed dance clubs like RISE in Boston at 3AM by yourself.

I often think of this quote when people give me shit about it. When I was living in Boston at first I didn't know where "the paradise" or "the dise" was. I saw this little bar across from street and up the road from the main MIT building entrance at the corner of Mass Ave and Albany and assumed maybe that was the paradise I had always heard of. It wasn't until I went to some shows at the actual Paradise music venue that I finally knew the Paradise Cafe wasn't "the dise". I didn't realize the nature of the place or that this was the place mentioned Affleck&Damon's "Good Will Hunting". Apparently it's least attractive aspects are that it has strippers and porn playing on Projectors. Yah, it's a gay bar I guess. The whole context of the quote I knew so well made alot more sense.

source http://www.moviescriptsandscreenplays.com/BenandMatt/goodwillhunting.txt

PSYCHOLOGIST
Like what, Will?

WILL
I go places, I interact.

PSYCHOLOGIST
What places?

WILL
Certain, clubs.
(beat)
Like, Paradise. It's not bad.

Will gives the Psychologist a furtive look.

WILL (cont'd)
It's just that feeling when you can
take your shirt off and really dance.
(beat)
When the music owns you. Do you
understand?

PSYCHOLOGIST
I might understand that.

WILL
Do you find it hard to hide the fact
that you're gay?

PSYCHOLOGIST
What?

hilarious.

And I also leave you with this. A hilarious military Blog written by an agnostic Unitarian Universalist soldier who spent time in Afghanistan.

http://traversa.typepad.com/afghanistan_without_a_clu/

youtube is down

2011-02-16T00:53:00.000-05:00

Http/1.1 Service Unavailable

as of 12:50AM 2/16/2011

688 10th Avenue

2011-02-09T09:13:00.004-05:00

Our building had a gas leak that was probably only found out about due to the (attempted) opening of a new restaurant below our building (that is an interesting story for another time and directly related to this post). The gas system here has no doubt been leaking for years with no attention. The owner of the building is "E&W Realty" aka Elizabeth Wolf hailing from far away Queens NY. We have lived here at 688 for not quite one year now but I gleaned from discussions with most of the other long term tenants (10-17 years tenancy) that she has been less than helpful with problems ranging from insects, bedbugs, heat, and noise from the commercial restaurant units on the first floor. She sounds like your sweet grandmotherly figure on the phone but I speak to her less these days as Metropolitan Property Services, Inc. is now running point as building management. Previously people spoke directly with E&W when problems would arise... and from the history of the building shown by the NYC.gov buildings webste... problems sure did arise! Any 20 unit walkup apartment in New York City is going to have a checkered past of some sort and I am sure this building is no worse than any other hells kitchen apartment of similar size and condition. Farther up 10th ave between 49th and 52nd there are some apartments on the East side of the street that would no doubt make our building seem like a palace.

Here are a sampling of the complaints gleaned from the super helpful website at the buildings section of the nyc.gov website http://bit.ly/f5XqMG

"Category Code: 65 GAS HOOK-UP/PIPING - ILLEGAL OR DEFECTIVE"
30 BUILDING SHAKING/VIBRATING/STRUCT STABILITY AFFECTED

---
43 STRUCTURAL STABILITY AFFECTED

Overview for Complaint #:1253450 = RESOLVED
Complaint at: 688 10 AVENUE BIN: 1026580 Borough: MANHATTAN ZIP: 10019
Re: CLR STS THAT THEY WERE DOING STRUCTURAL WORK AT LOCATION AND NOT THE BUILDING IS SAGGING. CLR STS THAT THEY ARE SPLT BEAMS, ELECTRICAL WIRES HANGING AND THE BUILDING MAY COLLAPSE AT ANYTIME

Category Code: 10 DEBRIS/BUILDING -FALLING OR IN DANGER OF FALLING

this one (code 43) is a little disturbing and I still wonder about the veracity of the claim it is resolved... from my trips to the basement with Thomas Vicari (Owner of a Casa Havana for more info on Thomas's public battles as a restauranter read the links below!) I've been shown first hand the sad state of the structural beams in the basement. Rot and termites have done a number on them over time.
http://bit.ly/fYmd49
http://bit.ly/i6IIsu

Wish us luck! We can't wait until our gas is turned back on so I can use our stove and oven once again. We are currently fighting to keep our rent from being raised while we have no use of our gas stove. It will take months of construction to fix the gas system in our building and we have already been without gas for 2 months. \

test

2010-11-24T21:47:00.000-05:00

Resetting an OSX admin password

2010-10-25T17:24:00.003-04:00

Resetting an OSX admin password without an original Mac install disk

http://theappleblog.com/2008/06/22/reset-os-x-password-without-an-os-x-cd/
thank you Apple Blog! I wasted some time looking for an actual disk when this was all I neded to do. Cheers!

To reset your OS X password without an OS X CD you need to enter terminal and create a new admin account:

1.Reboot
2.Hold apple + s down after you hear the chime.
3.When you get text prompt enter in these terminal commands to create a brand new admin account (hitting return after each line):
1.mount -uw /
2.rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
3.shutdown -h now
4.After rebooting you should have a brand new admin account. When you login as the new admin you can simply delete the old one and you’re good to go again!

To you know who! yes you!

2010-10-09T16:28:00.004-04:00

Thanks and Love to all who came out to celebrate my 30th with me and for everyone who wished me well this past week in real life and on facebook! thanks for buying me all those dericious drinks and mountains of amazing Korean food and watermelon Soju at Pocha32. I am glad you all hung in with me for the decision to hit up Deity in Brooklyn for DJ Spinna. He absolutely blew the roof off. We closed the place up in style and many a vicious dance move were thrown down. 1000x thanks you's and you all know I am lucky to have you in my life. I made a blog post years ago with a list of the people I felt gratitude for and I urge you all to look yourselves up. I am adding to that list mentally all the time. Number one on that list for the past 3 years is my girlfriend Heather Martin. I love you heaps and am so grateful for all of your love and presence in my life.

to-universe.html

and i'm better because you are there.

Love

RJ

Jeff Spencer and Stacy Thompson wedding flight itineraries.

2010-09-14T12:20:00.005-04:00

Thu, Sep 16, 2010
New York La Guardia Airport, (LGA) to Chicago O'Hare International Airport, (ORD)
Flight: United Flight 681 (on Airbus A319)
Depart: 01:00 PM, New York, NY (LGA)
Arrive: 02:30 PM, Chicago, IL (ORD)

Mon, Sep 20, 2010
Chicago O'Hare International Airport, (ORD) to New York La Guardia Airport, (LGA)

Flight: United Flight 682 (on Airbus A319)
Depart: 01:06 PM, Chicago, IL (ORD)
Arrive: 04:13 PM, New York, NY (LGA)

September 17 11:35 a.m.
12:46 p.m. PORTLAND ME, ME to
NEW YORK JFK, NY 603
Alicia Lorraine Tholl
18A

September 17 3:59 p.m.
5:50 p.m. NEW YORK JFK, NY to
CHICAGO OHARE, IL 917
Alicia Lorraine Tholl
22F
5

September 20 6:35 p.m.
9:52 p.m. CHICAGO OHARE, IL to
NEW YORK JFK, NY 918
Alicia Lorraine Tholl
22D
2

September 20 10:35 p.m.
11:52 p.m. NEW YORK JFK, NY to
PORTLAND ME, ME 608
Alicia Lorraine Tholl
17D

where do I go? Here:

2010-09-08T09:15:00.002-04:00

Long night

2010-08-27T13:27:00.007-04:00

Great weather this morning, 77 and sunny.

Woke up late after having been at work until 2:00 AM dealing with a connectivity mystery for our Tribeca office. First I was surprised by the fancy new paint job that had been splashed up since the night before. Our entrance way is a bright turquoise blue with navy accents on the art deco-ish designs that were seemingly hidden until this new makeover. *edit It's pretty garish, and it's no wonder when I returned from the casino this weekend one of my fellow 688'ers has put up a sign stating "WINNER Ugliest paint job in Hell's Kitchen" I have a feeling they might send the painter back do a touch up soon with some new colors.

Cleo and I stopped at Sullivan bakery to grab a slice of zuchini pizza and a peach bombolini. Both were out of this world delicious. I inquired what oil the Italian donut was fried in because it was so rich, turned out to be corn oil. Sullivan Bakery is one of my favorite neighborhood spots to get a real loaf of bread or a quick bite. Amy's Bread has more variety but each of Sullivan's items is well executed. My taste for bread was nurtured over the past decade by my friend Norton West, and by Stephen Lanzalotta. Stephen owned a little bakery called Sophia's next to Post office Park In Portland Maine. Previous to meeting these two guru's I would say I was "bread deprived" eating sliced wheat bread not knowing what a wonderful world of baking awaited me. Here is a link to Stephen's new spot and some background on him and his new spot at Micucci's grocery on India St. Portland ME.

http://www.mainetoday.com/diningreview.html?id=1011

Tonight I'll be traveling wth Mr. Fish and a slew of other friends for a weekend at Mohegan/Foxwoods. I've never been before and am looking forward to some debauchery with mah homies.

wish us luck!

attempting a consistent mini diary

2010-08-25T10:18:00.004-04:00

August 25- Sept 5.

August 25,

rainy and 66 as of this writing.

observed people cleaning up the Amtrak tracks underneath 48th street overpass while walking Cleo. Cleo as is typical when it rains wanted nothing to do with being outside. I woke up with Heather early and started attempting to finish of a work project that involved talking to Verizon and sitting on hold for 30 minutes for the same issue I thought was solved yesterday. Verizon FAIL. I cooked some red potatoes on the stove hash brown style with MAGGI chicken stock, black pepper and lots of red pepper, onions, garlic, and some water to keep it from burning and to spread the stock tablet. It was delicious.

We found a banana so rotten that it was leaking down the refrigerator from a tiny hole in the end opposite of the stem. *(Cleo later dug through the trash and brought it into our bed.) thanks Cleo... you always know just the right stuff to haul into my sleeping area to gnaw on.

Lunch, Bahn Mi thanks to Sarah Cho. Thanks Sarah! it was fantastic and extra spicey.

rode bike to Tribeca, rode bike back to Noho, then rode home!

Domino's delivery for dinner. Cinna sticks, breadsticks and two regular pizzas. The most intersting part of this meal was the way it was delivered, by a terribly confused Côte d'Ivoirian who only moved to new york 2 months prior. He kept calling me on the phone to ask me if I lived at SIX EIGHT EIGHT. I kept replying yes and then he would hang up and call me again asking the same question. This went on for about 4 tries and then I saw him riding on a bike going the wrong way down 10th ave on the opposite side of the street so I flagged him down. He looked like he had just learned to ride a bike and was practicing on the most treacherous roads possible. Poor guy. It's got to be a rough life for an immigrant in New York these days. Which reminds me of the big new piece of graffiti across the street from our apartment sprayed above the amtrak tunnel overpass exclaiming "Illegal = OUT".

various

2010-07-14T09:08:00.000-04:00

Do gif's work on blogger?

Tylers graduation day

2010-07-14T09:01:00.000-04:00

Graduation day

May your life be a peice of cake

2010-07-14T09:00:00.000-04:00

And sweet

Dale walks alone

2010-07-14T08:58:00.001-04:00

Always walking the road less traveled.

summer kids ice cream and bubbles

2010-07-14T08:56:00.001-04:00

Jackman, mom and some randoms

EseJ Shif

2010-07-14T08:54:00.001-04:00

Messing about with fish

Music Release Recommendation from Beatport

2010-04-29T09:31:00.001-04:00


	Robert has recommended this release:

	test



			Beyond The Event Horizon
			( CDSERIES17 )
			$11.99 ( 8 tracks )

	[ Preview ]

Other similar releases:

:: If you have any questions, please click here to contact support.

:: We are committed to making Beatport the best digital dance music buying experience on the planet. Please let us know if you have feedback or any ideas on how we can make Beatport better. feedback@beatport.com

++++ Beatport DIGITAL DOWNLOAD NETWORK
Access the world of club music

VAT Rate 15%
Beatport, SARL
2a, Place de Paris
L-2314 Luxembourg
VAT ID: LU23034311

[ Visit Beatport ]

STL and carefully chosen sounds.

2010-04-29T09:10:00.003-04:00

There was a time when I started buying loop records and sound compilations and would get really attached to very tiny pieces of music. I guess sound selection can be taken, and must be taken very seriously for the technology of sound to be taken further and further. Since going to mutek, I have been introduced to lots of really fantastic dub techno. Seeing Rhythm and Sound live in 2006 was what drove me back to reach into the vaults of artists like maurizio of basic channel. A special thanks to B. Sharpe for giving me a great back catalogue of great music last year at mutek as well. One of the gem producers in that lot of music he dumped on me was the Dubbyman "Dubtroit EP". Thanks Mr. Sharpe

http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?1184http://www.discogs.com/reviews?artist=Stephan+Laubner

The same goes for Laubner, whose dance floor-orientated music seems to do the same thing—with minute variations—over and over again. A drum loop, a murky piece of melody, set things to autopilot and watch things develop. As any electronic musician can tell you, however, finding those loops is hard work. Echospace's Rod Modell will famously listen to something around the house all day long, and if it starts to lose its luster before hour eight, he'll throw it away and begin anew. These are snatches of music that need to somehow take on new forms the longer you live with them, all within the span of a few seconds.

quicklist of some great companies/restaurants in NYC

2010-04-26T14:37:00.003-04:00

J&R Music and Computers - retail location near chambers street. EVERyTHING tech you could ever need.

http://www.jr.com/information/directions.jsp

Computer-Hospital 2087 Amsterdam Ave. This store is a mish mash of audio and computer parts/ computer graveyard as some of the hospital's patients sometimes die... but the good part is that they donate their organs! If I needed a random part for an older laptop I would call this place first. It is the type of place that takes a good look at you and then decides how much to charge so you have to know how to play the game. Cut yourself a deal or pay full price!

Cables and Chips - near chambers street as well, for last minute needs like 75 ohm RG59 734 cables without having to mail order at 6:00PM on a Friday, they are the go to place!

http://www.cablesandchipsinc.com/

Vynl restaurant in midtown. Great menu's soundtrack, prices, and fun factor make this a go to spot.

http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/vynl/

Tulcingo Del Valle - more of a full service mexican restaurant. Even sells lots of hard to find smoked chiles. Guajillo, Anaheim, etc etc. On 10th ave in Hells Kitchen

Tehuitzingo - Cheap roadside mexican taco joint on 10th ave in Hells Kitchen as well (between 47th and 48th st.

tracks

2010-04-02T13:23:00.001-04:00

http://soundcloud.com/cityshit

Jam!

2010-04-02T13:07:00.000-04:00

Paperjams suck

2010-04-02T13:06:00.000-04:00

Grr

quebec's finest Poutine

2010-02-25T22:14:00.000-05:00

Stopped here on the ride back from a Montreal Depeche Mode concert in July, I WILL return. Belle Geule! I dont think that actually works but "pretty mouth" was how I felt eating those fresh cheese curds no doubt gleaned that day from a cow down the street.

thanks for the tickets Dave Brushett!

2010-02-25T21:40:00.001-05:00

Fan Pier - giant pvc pipe

2010-02-25T21:40:00.000-05:00

Haymarket

2010-02-25T21:39:00.000-05:00

I'm missing my cheap produce fix, I would walk down the hill saturday morning and buy veggies and fruits in bulk at Haymarket square.
box of 10 Mango's for $3
box of 10 Avocados $5
25 Lb bag og onions for 6$

I'll find something similar here in NYC but I haven't yet. There is an interesting Tarp covered tent on 52nd called Stiles farmers market which looks more like factory farm produce but I've yet to buy anything there yet.

Stiles Farmers Market
Neighborhoods: Theater District, Hell's Kitchen
352 W 52nd St
New York, NY 10019
(212) 582-3088

Sandy and Dale's garden

2010-02-25T21:25:00.000-05:00

Summer of 2009 economic stimulus garden.

love you Jack!

2010-02-25T20:54:00.000-05:00

heather martin's the prettiest of all.

2010-02-25T20:52:00.000-05:00

android apps

2010-02-25T20:51:00.001-05:00

2010-02-25T20:51:00.000-05:00

can you name that cubs fan?

2010-02-25T20:50:00.001-05:00

hero of the day - James Howard Kunstler

2010-02-22T09:36:00.005-05:00

http://www.kunstler.com/index.php

Watch this Ted Talk and prepare for the coming civic design future that looks alot more like Europe and less like Tucson. He calls out Boston in this Ted Talk for having the WORST city hall and one of the least civically desirable common areas imaginable surrounding it. I walked through the city hall property DAILY for 6 months and completely agree with his summation. I have however seen it as a workable space for large events such as community concerts and ice cream tasting festivals. Other than that it looks like a great place for the inner party to broadcast the "two minutes hate". Boston city hall is actually the first picture displayed in the wikipedia entry as the poster child for the architectural movement known as Brutalism.

TED TALK by Kunstler

http://www.kunstler.com/bio.html

Coworking and Sunshine Suites

2010-02-22T09:04:00.003-05:00

Coworking is a movement to create a community of cafe-like collaboration spaces for developers, writers and independents.

NYTimes article about coworking
sunshineny.com
http://blog.coworking.info/
http://jake.howmeta.com
interview with Cheni Yureshalmi

Connections from the Tucson Gem shows

2010-02-15T11:03:00.006-05:00

Pueblo Gem fair 2010.---------------------

check out more pictures of my trip to Tucson at flickr

Morning Sun Jewelry I met Peter last year in Mystic CT on one of his trips to the East coast, this time I got a chance to really see all of his designs and the diversity of gems and jewelry that he carries out of his Grass Valley, California shop. Great craftsman/artist and a world explorer Peter is!

mystic gem company Local gem/jewelry dealer in Mystic CT also at the show for 21 straight years! Mike and my cousin Matt are happily covering the gem needs of the Mystic CT market.

E-BU Jewlery- Neighbors on our "block" at the Pueblo show. I worked with Warren and Robbin to help them with some computer related issues and traded services for some fantastic hand crafted jewelry. Thanks so much!

MinuteCad.com Thanks for being such a great neighbor at Pueblo! Victor has a great product so check it out. Vic: I owe you for keeping me hydrated with those caffeine free diet cokes! thanks!

Elemental Adornments Christi's booth was right next to our booth. Christi and her son and daughter were in attendance helping her out when she was working the Best Bead Show down the road. Great kids I might add, VERY well behaved. Her jewelry/art is phenomenal check our her website to see some at the link above.

Sabino Canyon

2010-02-11T20:57:00.000-05:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabino_Canyon

remote control

2010-01-06T12:42:00.004-05:00

On a regular basis I rely/depend/curse/love/hate on the use of remote desktop software such as
Logmein (Rescue, Pro, Free, and Central)
Teamviewer
mstsc
RDP
Webex
Citrix gotomeeting
Adobe ConnectNow

Most often I use Logmein Central to login to a remote server and then use MSTSC to login to a particular workstation on that network. When the workstation does not have the option to "allow remote desktop control connections" checked off its a hassle. Luckily I found this post and want to make sure others in my bind know about this wonderful workaround. I had never remotely connected to another systems registry before, i felt quite powerful!

here it is:

http://oreilly.com/windows/archive/server-hacks-remote-desktop.html

Remote Desktop is a cool feature of Windows Server 2003 that lets you remotely log on to and work at a machine as if you were seated at the local console (in Windows 2000 Advanced Server, this feature was called Terminal Services in Remote Administration Mode). Remote Desktop can be a lifesaver for fixing problems on servers at remote sites, but what if you forgot to enable the feature before you shipped the server out to Kalamazoo? Enabling Remote Desktop is easy if the server is in front of you: just log on as an administrator, open System in Control Panel, select the Remote tab, and under Remote Desktop select the checkbox labeled "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer." Unfortunately, you can't use the System utility to enable Remote Desktop on a remote machine, though you can access some properties pages of System using Computer Management by first connecting the console to a remote computer, then right-clicking on the root node and selecting Properties. Unfortunately, as you can see in Figure 1 below, the Remote tab is not available when you access System properties this way on a remote machine (here named SRV220).

Chapter 2. The move and settling in.

2010-01-02T08:57:00.005-05:00

The Movers came on Thursday at 8:15 AM on time but definitely suprising me in the buff and unshowered. Heather graciously asked them if they could give us 15 minutes. She scowled at me and said

"You should have gotten up earlier!"

ahh well, we were up until 3:45 AM packing and sorting. I had to work all day Thursday and got a bit caught up driving around in some pretty dicey snowy weather, my tires are NOT good in the snow. Highlight of the workday was stopping at Maxgroup in woburn... a Taiwannese owned computer parts distributor. Cooper (our sales rep) was frying up amazing salt and pepper fried chicken that was just unreal delicious and reminded me of street food in Taipei. I was waiting to pay for something and Ccooper walked away and completely forgot so I walked into the kitchen area and he started feeding me delectable chicken... then realized I wasnt there because im a hound for the food (which I am) but rather he had forgotten to get paid for the items he had just given me. I love MaxGroup, Cooper is a nutcase of a sales guy, but the lovable sort of one and very flexible! The rest of the day flew by and before I knew it it was NYE and Heather and I were all packed and shoved into the car to start the festivities. Drinks and sushi with Tara Connolly and my cousin Marlene in Somerville then off to East Boston to revel with RR and Jen. By the way... there is a street in east boston that has more potholes than you can shake a truckload of sticks at near Gove St adjacent to the airport... if you find yourself on that street backup and do NOT continue. Especially when your car is full to bursting and contains people with questionably hearty stomachs, it could end badly for your struts and for their guts.

So now we're here! I bombed down the Mass Pike furiously trying to make up the 6 mile headstart the Bolt Bus had on me then onto the I84-I91-I95 route to NYC following Heather on the Bolt Bus out of Boston. The bus was a good pace car and cuts a nice line through traffic. After a quick bowl of Pho at Pho Pasteur in Chinatown and a brief meetup with Shawn and Judito I ws ready to ball that jack south to Gotham City, my new stomping grounds. "What Kicks! Yass yass" as Neil Cassidy would say. I walked Cleo this morning and got the lay of the land in our temporary neighborhood (Hells Kitchen/Midtown).

Last night we ate thai food for dinner at Chanpen, I had something similar to a ceviche, was decent but not great and for a thai restaraunt and $13, a bit small.

Here is our address, a few pictures, and some recent history of the block we're on.
http://wirednewyork.com/real_estate/cameo/

Thats it for now folks. Thanks for reading! I'll miss you Boston, you were a good city for me... you know I'll be back. I never got to say goodbye to you Jimmy McGrath but I know I will see you in Brooklyn or the Boken.

Heddi Siebel - artist

2009-12-06T17:46:00.003-05:00

www.heddisiebel.com

RISD Adjunct Professor in Printmaking.

Thanksgiving in Eaton New York

2009-11-30T01:05:00.001-05:00

27 gallons of gas, 800 miles, many gas station bathrooms, indian casino's, wonderful food and drink, and some good and bad weather.

overall a success.

hope you all had a good holiday.

Grandfather David Muir Tholl

2009-11-17T17:48:00.002-05:00

reposting this after finding this on Highbeam. He was a great grand-dad. Built me the best train set when I was 8. Rest in Peace.
--------------------------------------

David M. Tholl, the retired president of the now-defunct American Tool & Machine Co. of Hyde Park who later became a cattle rancher, died of cancer last Thursday in his home in South Portland, Maine. He was 74.

Mr. Tholl was born in Detroit and educated in schools in Troy, Mich., and in Needham.

He worked for American Tool & Machine for 40 years, the last 10 as president, and retired in 1972.

In 1972 he moved to West Virginia to organize a cattle ranch and operated it for 19 years. He settled in South Portland in 1991.

He was a member of the Norfolk lodge of Masons in Needham, and had been a scoutmaster.

Mr. Tholl leaves his wife, Eleanor (Harrison); a son, John David Tholl, of Wellesley; six grandchildren and a great-grandson.

The funeral was private. Burial was in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Portland.

Boston Level Completed! Next Level: New York CIty

2009-11-08T11:28:00.005-05:00

Heather has taken a job at Hoffman LaRoche in Nutley New Jersey and we are starting to shift gears into transition mode. I informed my employer a few weeks ago of the possibility I may be moving to New York if Heather decides to take the job at "Roche". As this will require me to find a new job as well this has me jumping back into the word processor to modify my resume and start sending out coverletters and resumes to prospective employers posting jobs at newyork.craigslist.org/tch I'm really hoping to hear from people in my extended network living in the NYC area to give me some good ideas on good/interesting tech jobs in the midtown area. SO I'm putting this out there to the world so it knows exactly what I want...
My current job at Mikrodots is an informal small business environment where I spend about 60% of the time in the depot fixing systems, entering support tickets and scheduling future service and 40% in the field at client sites doing server checkups, wiring, software/hardware/network support.

There is no dress code to speak of, no HR dept, limited oversight, and only 3 full time staff! It is a very efficient operation in regard to our company overhead and how many systems we are actually supporting with such a skeleton crew of staff. Mike has created a great model for the small business managed service company, it's just a shame that it hasn't grown faster and added some more strategic partners and business. My only coworker aside from the owner Mike Doherty is Andy Giles. Andy is a talented young tech (only 23!) proprietor of the tech blog: www.techsack.com. Andy is my manager and the go to guy for the tougher problems relating to server side issues and networking. He will have a bright future in the tech sector and I will be interested to see where it takes him in the near future.
Mike Doherty (owner of Mikrodots) typically working in the back of the depot (in our spacious new Woburn office) testing out potential candidates for new ERP software, open source web appliances, corporate wifi security, and always generally looking for better more efficient ways to serve our customers. He tried his best to ensure information flow between employees and documentation of case/client information. He also kept up with testing out new sources for monitoring and virtualization technologies. Completely different management style than I've ever worked with but definitely was great about never micro managing his talent... if anything he probably erred on not being as involved or engaged with developing the sales organization earlier on in my time there but now he seems to be on the right path trying to brand the business better and get a sales department moving.
Overall it was a great experience and brought my level of server side knowledge up a great deal. In my next support position I'm looking to keep pushing forward in my knowledge of networking, monitoring, and enterprise level tools and software. Working with netsuite ERP was also a added bonus of the job and something that I would consider using someday as a small business owner. It's integration of accounting and ticket management is really useful for the 5-10 employee managed service company. It was a bit pricey for a small company but its functionality and easy of use made it worth it in the end.
In my next job I'm hoping to have more responsibility and a more engaging atmosphere with more collaboration for project based work and chances to hone my skills in network monitoring, and implementation. My ideal company would be a renewable energy company like Beacon Power, or perhaps Arcadia Wind Power based in NYC.

Mint.com to the rescue

2009-11-05T22:15:00.004-05:00

Just when I was attempting to use yahoo pipes to amalgamate all of my banking websites, mint.com has come and done all the dirty work for me, and from the first look has done a fantastic job. Thanks to Rob Reed and Heather for finding this super helpful tool. Logging into 3 credit card websites and 4 separate checking sites was getting tedious. After my initial giddy-ness at the concept, paranoia started setting in. Now I can have all of my accounts hacked at once. The devil's favorite darling is convenience.

How long this service will stay free now that inuit owns it is anyones guess. Don't screw this up Intuit!

Flying to Aroostook county with David Fernald...

2009-10-21T17:14:00.003-04:00

For all of my friends and family who have ever had to make the trip up to "The County" (or may once again do it for the hell of it) try flying from portland with David Fernald Jr. instead!

http://www.maineville.com/detail/117335.html

I miss you Bubbas Sulky Lounge

2009-09-30T21:26:00.001-04:00

With your light up disco dancefloor.

and stinky sweaty dancers

lunchboxes

zodiac parties

middle aged women bartenders with funny haircuts

Back room tchotchkes and stuffed animals

Jason Giroux breakdancing in the middle room

cash only policy.

I'll look back at you and think of all of our good times together. knowing no one can replace you.

Love RJ

Selling a laptop on Ebay

2009-09-05T08:59:00.005-04:00

Bear in mind the laptop i was selling in this auction was partially broken and not in perfect working condition. The laptop was being sold for parts... the owner paid $400 when brand new. here is my listing of the item and the replies I received (I listed the laptop for 99 cents and let the free market do the rest. So many offers from people pledging to give me $600-1200 for this broken laptop is ridiculous... All I can acertain is that they cannot make an actual bid because I chose an option that doesnt let people bid who only have 2 or less transactions and any bad marks on their account. I have had huge problems in the past selling laptops on ebay because that security function didnt exist before. Ebay is definitely trying harder to make the auctions run smoother. What amazes me is how many people are stalking every laptop sale out there. Many of these are from Africa I presume and more exactly Nigeria. My imagination paints a picture of internet cafe's in Lagos absolutely jam packed with people banging off letter after letter of scams to ebay sellers and random email addresses of US and other western countries netizens.

This laptop has some motherboard issues that make it perform very inconsistent. The system works fine most of the time but will occasionally freeze up and need to be rebooted. I am selling this basically for parts as it is not under warranty. I have heard from many other users that this laptop is hit or miss and has had lots of known issues. This system is in great physical condition and would be great as a parts car for a laptop tech out there fixing compaq laptops THE ONLY THING I AM NOT INCLUDING IS THE HARD DISK. I have given the owner back the hard disk to be used as an external drive backup. Sorry if this is an issue but I am planning on selling this machine more for parts and not as a working operational unit although im sure with some love you may be able to fix this 100% many many high res photos are available upon request send all questions to rjtholl@gmail.com or contact me through here. I will ship this laptop anywhere in the USA or canada. THIS IS AN "AS IS" SALE

Dammy Tokunbo to me
--
Hello seller, I'm ready to buy your item right away and i will be very
happy if you can just sell it for me.
Am willingly offer you $600 for the item.. If my offer is accepted
by you, kindly send me your paypal email address for the immediate
payment as i am online for the right transaction....
PayPal Only and No Scam.

Get back to me now.
---------

jame smith to me

Hello, Will you consider selling this item to me, for an offer $1,100.00USD, which also covers the shipping & insurance charges for delivery abroad. payment would be effected upon your response as i want you to send me your PayPal payment request,for the payment to my email address jame.smith@live.com, if you are interested in selling this to me. I am serious with this as i promise not let you down with the purchase of the item.. Your prompt response would be highly appreciated. Kind Regards jame.smith@live.com You can contact me directly at my personal e-mail at jame.smith@live.com.I want you to end the auction now and get back to me.So end the auction now.I normally check my message,just mail me to jame.smith@live.com.
Thanks God Bless....
--------------------------------------------

Peter Nelson to me
show details Aug 31 (4 days ago)

Hi,

I have gone through your listing and i realize that it fits my search. Hope you will you consider selling this product for me at the price of $550.00USD that will also cover the postage and insurance charges through USPS (United State Postal Service) to meet up with an urgent demand in my store Abroad. Am really serious about this purchase and If possible,i will like if you can get the item off auction now and get back to me cause i will be making the transfer for this product regarding your response through PayPal.Kindly acknowledge my message by sending to me a Paypal money request to peternelson_11@hotmail.com so that i can effect the money into your paypal account with immediate effect. IM me at peternelson_11@yahoo.co.uk. And if the money am offering is too low, kindly call back my attention so that i can shot it up a bit.

Thanks.
I wait to read from you.

Mr P Nelson.
-------------------------------------
Hello seller,
I'm interested in the immediate purchase of this item,which is needed for my Daughter as a Gift urgently in next 3-5 days, i will offer you $1,000.00 USD for the item including shipping & insurance via (Global Express Mail Delivery (EMS),i will be paying you through PayPal.please send your email address in your reply so i can contact you anytime.

Regards

stolen htc g1

2009-09-01T16:14:00.004-04:00

So someone stole my google phone and am now scrambling to take all necessary steps to get it back. This is a catastrophe as it contained SOOO much personal data and many pictures I had not backed up. THe monetary cost was not so great but the sheer amount of money spent on modifying and buying upgrades and software for the phone is where I feel I have had something much more than a phone taken from me. Thanks to having Track My Life by www.SmartGPSWorld.com installed on the handset I was able to track where my phone was taken to (see the attached screenshot from track my life's google maps web interface).

THis experience has caused me to see some sides of tmobile and cell phone carriers in general that seem to be self serving and PRO THEFT.

read about the arguments here

http://forums.mobiledia.com/topic61587.html

Has anyone out there successfully obtained a subpoena for your stolen cell phone? I spoke with a representative from the sheriffs office and he basically told me that it would cost me upwards of $500 in legal costs just to get the ball rolling. Seems prohibitive... and even if I do get the imei blocked for tmobile... the thief can unlock the phone and use ATT!

quotes from Lady From Shanghai

2009-08-14T00:18:00.006-04:00

Starring Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth.
These quotes are by Mike "Black Irish" O'Hara played by Welles.

...tough guy?

What´s a tough guy?

I don´t know.

A guy with an edge.

What makes him sing better
than me? Something in here.

What makes it loud?
A microphone. That´s his edge.

-Edge?
-A gun, a nightstick or a razor.

Something the other guy ain´t got.

An extra reach on a punch, instead of
brass knuckles, a stripe on a sleeve...

...a badge that says ´´cop´´
on it, a rock in your hand...
...or a bankroll in your pocket.

That´s an edge, brother.

Without an edge,
there ain´t no tough guy.

-You hear that, Black Irish?
-lt´s true.

Well...

...bear it in mind.

screenplay from lady from shanghai. a most quotable movie.

and another one

´"Tis a fair face to the land...

...but you can´t hide
the hunger and guilt.

It´s a bright, guilty world."

this quote was telling of the feelings that Orson Welles had for central and south america. Feelings that would manifest themselves into a documentary that never would never be fully finished but was made into something called "It's all true".

...once, off the hump of Brazil...

...I saw the ocean so darkened
with blood it was black...

...and the sun fainting away
over the lip of the sky.

We´d put in at Fortaleza...

...and a few of us had lines out
for a bit of idle fishing.

It was me had the first strike.

A shark it was.

Then there was another.

And another shark again.

Till all about, the sea
was made of sharks...

...and more sharks still.
And no water at all.

My shark had torn himself
from the hook...

...and the scent or maybe the stain it
was, and him bleeding his life away...

...drove the rest of them mad.

Then the beasts took
to eating each other.

In their frenzy...

...they ate at themselves.

You could feel the lust of murder
like a wind stinging your eyes.

And you could smell the death
reeking up out of the sea.

I never saw anything worse...

...until this little picnic tonight.

And you know...

...there wasn´t one of them sharks
in the whole crazy pack that survived.

nasty disco funk!

2009-08-13T00:09:00.004-04:00

I'm a simple man! Going on 10 years now, all I want out of my weekend night out is to walk into a club/bar with stiff drinks of high quality, a good sound system... hopefully playing something like this:

http://mp3.juno.co.uk/MP3/SF356162-01-01-01.mp3

thank you to marz ent, Randy Deshaies, riseclub.us, Cambridge's own Phoenix landing, the wonder boys from Soulclap, and the all of the artists out there still making high quality dance music.

youtube

2009-08-11T21:16:00.009-04:00

Youtube over the past few years has become a fantastic place to look up rare dance tracks of all shapes and sizes. generally showing a photo of the records circular decal or even a home made video put together with a diy editing program while the song plays out. It would be quite easy to make a cool music video mashup station using something like yahoo pipes and some keywords filtering tags and artist names.

These gems I gleaned in a very stream of consciousnous manner. I hope you enjoy listening and watching them as much as I did.

1)Drexciya - Journey Home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9y9Snt1g5E
2)Bochum Welt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdNooBW-TEM&feature=related
3)Lego Feet aka autechre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BXUEkJj5t4&feature=related
4)James Hunter- Walk Away. I must explain this as it is completely different from the other tunes ive linked to. My boss was playing this song at work for the past few days and I really have gotten to like it. Hailing from London, Hunter has by the sound of it been something of a secret for many years and has over the past decade finally receiving the press and accolades he deserves. His sound is nice and spread out, uncluttered reminds me of sam cooke a bit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGQd8M5t4Ao
Deep Forest - Deep Forest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4mskaR3OzE

4) SEHR GUT MEIN HERR! I came across this track on beatport a few weeks ago and it has grown on me. This version I have linked to is done live with a drummer and is quite fantastic!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy-ztntdQq0

Sam Annand is set to release his debut album as Architeq later this year. The London-based Scotsman hasn't been particularly prolific over the past two years, but the tracks he has unveiled have already made waves with fans of both disco, dub, and wonky instumental hip-hop. Last year's Birds Of Prey EP may have been his debut single, but showed an admirable level of production expertise with his slow wiggling grooves and off-kilter funk.

Three of the tracks from Birds Of Prey have found their way onto the full-length, which goes by the title of Green And Gold, but there will be ten brand new cuts for eager fans to get their teeth into, including three vocal contributions. The dulcet tones of Sunharbour vocalist Junior Williams sits atop the lilting "Nothing," Ilija Rudman gets on the mic for the electro-boogie of "Mind Games," and Angéle David Gillou compliments the strutting jazz piano of "Spinning Plates."

http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=10906

John Walker Lindh

2009-08-03T10:34:00.004-04:00

I recently listened to the Friday July 31 edition of democracy now with Amy Goodman and learned new information about the man once called "the american taliban". John Walker Lindh (Sulayman Lindh) is sitting in Terre Haute for the next decade on some charges unrelated to terrorism or aiding and abetting terrorism.
John Walker turns out to be from Marin county California and from his parents comments in the interview, was taken in by islam while watching the 1996 movie. X. The story of Malcolm X... I find this interesting as this was also my first introduction to Islam as well, Alex Haley's Malcolm X biography. After listening to the entire interview with his parents I'm impressed by the character of these people and the enormity of their struggle. This story has all the makings of a great movie or far reaching tell all bio of the backstory behind the war on terror. If I don't start seeing college activists holding "FREE Sulayman LINDH" posters soon I'll be very surprised...

http://openleft.com/diary/14442/john-walker-lindha-lens-and-a-mirror

"In their first extended interview, the parents of John Walker Lindh, Marilyn Walker and Frank Lindh, join us for the hour to tell their son's story. He was born in Washington, DC in 1981. At the age of sixteen, he converted to Islam. In 1999, Lindh left the United States for Yemen to study Arabic and the Koran. He later traveled to Pakistan and then to Afghanistan, before 9/11, where he received military training from the US-backed, Taliban-run Afghan Army to fight against the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan's civil war. He was captured in late 2001, found emaciated and wounded, one of the few to survive a massacre by the Northern Alliance. To his parents' relief, he was handed to US forces, but they brutalized him, as well. Donald Rumsfeld had ordered them to "take the gloves off." He was designated Detainee 001 in the war on terror. When he returned to the United States in January 2002, he was being held as a prisoner accused of conspiring to kill Americans. As part of a plea deal, Lindh pleaded guilty to serving in the Taliban army and carrying weapons and was given a twenty-year sentence."

2009-07-27T00:02:00.003-04:00

Ok so I hate voicemail. So sue me. It's annoying to manage and difficult to store the memorable/important messages you want to keep. No longer. Services like gotvoice and google voice are here and really helpful for those who are no willing to check voicemail multiple times each day but very willing to check email dozens of times.

I used and payed full price for GOTVOICE for a few months... it left me wanting more... google voice will definitely be filling that gap in my life now. I have actually gone back to checking voicemails the old fashioned way for a few weeks and cannot wait to get back to having voicemail transcription and downloadable/archivable messages. oh yah, and its free. sorry gotvoice. how can anyone compete with free? google scares me btw. they totally own me. ugh

rjtholl (617) 466-9448

gvoice

recent conversation with my favorite foodie friend.

2009-07-23T09:31:00.001-04:00

c: ok
why arent you seeing them in boston?
I ate corn fungus last night
man, you should come on a food vacation here sometime
its a mild halucinagen
found on blighted corn or in really fancy mexican resturants
really vivid dreams last night
and auditory hallucinations
Sent at 9:29 AM on Thursday
me: hahahah

testing my G1

2009-07-22T11:48:00.002-04:00

Purchased an htc G1 in late May. I am very very happy with this phone thus far. It has proved indespensible in my job as an on site technician traveling around the Boston area. gmaps\gmail\gcal integration is fantastic and I have only one qualm... battery life. I upgraded to the mugen 2400 mAh super extended battery and life is again, good.

binary star - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

2009-06-15T00:20:00.003-04:00

A binary star is a star system consisting of two stars orbiting around their common center of mass. The brighter star is called the primary and the other is its companion star, comes, or secondary. Research between the early 1800s and today suggests that many stars are part of either binary star systems or star systems with more than two stars, called multiple star systems. The term double star may be used synonymously with binary star, but more generally, a double star may be either a binary star or an optical double star which consists of two stars with no physical connection but which appear close together in the sky as seen from the Earth. A double star may be determined to be optical if its components have sufficiently different proper motions or radial velocities, or if parallax measurements reveal its two components to be at sufficiently different distances from the Earth. Most known double stars have not yet been determined to be either bound binary star systems or optical doubles.

wikipedia

a binary star can also be a rap group.

Binary Star were an alternative hip hop group formed in 1998 that was composed of One Be Lo and Senim Silla. While in prison, One Be Lo met Senim Silla, and the two formed Binary Star during their time in Hiawatha Correctional Facility.[1] One Be Lo took the time to gather extensive amounts of knowledge pertaining to the music industry, such as copyrights, publishing, and how to successfully start a record company. In his own words, he "learned how to hustle legally".

- wikipedia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVBWy-aYgF4&feature=related

how can I pay pal you some loot Lo & Silla?

Wyoming Opal. fresh from the wheel

2009-05-14T19:39:00.001-04:00

The main opal field "groups" located at Lightning Ridge are; Coocoran, Grawin/Carters, Glengarry/Sheepyards, Wyoming, Jag Hill and Mehi.

Mutek Plans Shaping up

2009-05-04T18:21:00.002-04:00

http://www.celebritiesmontreal.com/

I just received my ticket on Friday.
hotel is booked for the 28th and 29th.

Spoke with Claire Kenway last night about plans. She happened to have been nursing a hangover from going out in Berlin to see Derrick May at Berghain/Panorama. Apparently Derrick May is the epitomy of techno goodness and rocked Claire's world hard. Layered/percussive, 128-132 ish for speed. Great track selection. Can't wait to see him play.

Spent this weekend seeing Cousins Matt, Dan, Ethan, Polly, and Kava (the dog). Ethan was super fun and hanging out at the shop was fairly productive. Thanks for the delicious beef spareribs Polly!

Feeling a bit tense lately. Maybe more sleep is in order. Less googling.

Been watching all of the episodes of Frontline I can possibly fit in in my spare time. Reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Private_Life_of_Plants by D Attenborough

"Ever since we arrived on this planet as a species, we've cut them down, dug them up, burnt them and poisoned them. Today we're doing so on a greater scale than ever [...] We destroy plants at our peril. Neither we nor any other animal can survive without them. The time has now come for us to cherish our green inheritance, not to pillage it — for without it, we will surely perish."

– David Attenborough, in closing

lift the travel ban?

2009-04-05T21:02:00.002-04:00

Lifting the ban will help Jared, his wife and many other cuban families who would like to travel home more often, but who could this potentially be bad for?

Growing up sufficiently enough years past the bay of pigs scare I don't have any emotional attachment to the cuban embargo. My mother can remember being afraid of a nuclear attack during that time period but I can't. I am much more worried about non state threats than I am about terrorism, war, or commies. Famine and oil shortages which cause wars worry me more than communism. In that sense... I say yes... lift the embargo. Ive never been to cuba nor talked to anyone within the country who may be fighting for democracy and free market economy. My background is limited because of that fact. I often wonder what Gary Brecher the "War Nerd" would think in times like these. Or Seymour Hersh. Hey Seymor!... whats your take?

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cuba-travel1-2009apr01,0,4526770.story

"Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) strongly opposes the measure. He warned that flooding Cuba with tourists and dollars would only sustain the Castro regime. Having tourists on Cuban beaches is not going to change the equation of how to create the opportunity for democratic institutions in Cuba," Martinez said. "It's only going to enrich those who are oppressing the Cuban people and provide them with more economic means with which to do that."

Dorgan and fellow sponsors sense an opportunity to change U.S. policy now that President Obama has replaced George W. Bush in the White House and Castro has turned power over to his brother, Raul Castro.

Obama has ordered a review of U.S. policy on Cuba and last month loosened restrictions to let Cuban Americans visit relatives. Journalists can travel to Cuba, as can people on humanitarian missions.

This is another article challenging the wisdom of the policy change.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Sunday_Reflections/How-not-to-promote-democracy-in-Cuba-and-at-home-42469192.html

Lift the Cuba Travel restrictions NOW!

2009-03-29T08:24:00.003-04:00

An outdated relic of our cold war past. Let's lift the Cuba ban and usher in a new era of Cuba/US relations. Mr. Carter: I wish you the best of luck in defending your case.

VLS student Jared Carter (JD '09) is still a year away from receiving a law degree, but he argued his first case in federal court this week. Carter is one of four plaintiffs suing the U.S. government in an effort to ease travel restrictions to Cuba for family visits. Carter's wife, Yurisleidis Leyva Mora, is a native of Cuba who came to the U.S. in 2006. The couple want to travel to Cuba to celebrate their marriage with her family and to visit her aging grandparents. Appearing before U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions, Carter argued that the travel restrictions imposed by the Bush administration in 2004 violate due process and equal protection rights. The case is attracting wide attention, particularly in Miami and Havana. The Boston Globe carried this May 28 story, with video, that can be seen at boston.com. The Burlington Free Press covered the court hearing a May 29 story available at burlingtonfreepress.com (and reprinted in the Havana Journal): havanajournal.com.
The Rutland Herald and Times Argus carried stories available at timesargus.com and rutlandherald.com. The case was previously

excerpt
http://www.vermontlaw.edu/News_and_Events/VLS_in_the_News/VLS_in_the_News_2008_Archive/May_2008.htm

http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2008/05/28/they_fight_to_revisit_home/

fiat money system

2009-03-22T20:04:00.002-04:00

West Virginia Coal Tax

2009-03-04T16:21:00.004-05:00

My grandparents on my dad's side owned a cattle ranch in West Virgina in the 70's and 80's raising black angus cattle. My grandmother grew up in Harrison County with its capital in Clarksburg WV. Since that time my grandfather has passed on and sold the 1.14 sq miles but retained some of the deepest coal, lower kittaning as its known. There are multiple levels of deeded minerals underneath all of the land in West Virginia as any local could tell you. My grandmother and her great aunt have deep roots there and still own property and some local people still farm the land and raise cattle on it. There is a great story buried in this time in my grandparents life and Im only now getting most of the details... part of my coming of age has been paying taxes on the retained mineral rights and bearing witness to my grandmothers battle to keep the taxes from exploding 10,000% per year for the last few years. Below is a link to an article outlining the struggle between landowners and pols to find a happy medium between funding for state and landowners ability to pay!

I would love go explore Harrison county and meet some of the people that worked and lived near my grandparents. It is one of my life's easily attainable goals to just go and stand on the property my grandparents farmed.
http://www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=52678

Confusion and anger over skyrocketing coal assessments and property tax bills caused hundreds of West Virginians to complain to state leaders. Now the state Tax Department has taken a step back, telling county assessors not to include geological information in this year's bill.

By CYNTHIA McCLOUD
For The State Journal

and a little history about west virginias coal industry / burden / godsend. ;-)

http://www.wvcoalmining.com/coal-mining/history-west-virginia-mineral-industries-coal

Maine High School Basketball

2009-02-27T13:49:00.005-05:00

Did I ever mention I love Maine, basketball, and the people who play it (past and present)

Growing up in North Anson in central Maine, sports games and especially basketball games were a great way to spend an evening in a town without a movie theater for 25 miles. The stage was the basketball court and the players were the kids, the crowd and the dreaded referees. The drama in wintry high school gyms I played in often escalated to a state of pandemonium not unlike march madness.

If you ever need to reference a maine basketball related historid factoid then go here -> http://frank.spanky.googlepages.com/index

and for up to date chatter and scores mbr.org is also a heavy in the area. The Maine Boys High School Basketball forum has around 27000 posts! Why maine high school ball is such a religion is pretty easy to understand... maine winters are awful and people need an outlet. It is kind of like the TV show "survivor" only as a player you happen to be driving on a bus over icy roads and braving brawls with rowdy cabin fevered kids.

2008-12-23T23:03:00.002-05:00

HOT COINS You Can't Pray For Your Soul (12")
You Can't Pray For Your Soul
Christmas Day

Christmas Day is the cut I need this for. 115BPM slomo dance heaven.

DOROTHYS FORTRESS
Django The Bastard Edits EP (12") Destroy All Planets
Silencer
Enter Castillo
Couple De Ville
The Revenger Of El Santoro

6TH BOROUGH PROJECT Part One (12") Instruments Of Rapture

Hang On
The Formula (Dub Vibes)
Nights Over Memphis (The Revenge Dub)

minitek 3 saturday review

2008-09-14T12:24:00.004-04:00

Very briefly

Took the F train to Coney, exited the subway and immediately started hearing sub bass. GOOD SIGN. Everything went much smoother but not without glaring hitches here and there. I only spent 5 minutes in line going in on saturday at about 3pm and apparently most people didnt spend much longer than that all day. The music was for the most part fantastic. I will be honest, I came here to see jeremy p caufield. He blew the roof off once again. The first few tracks he played were hitting all the right spots and then he went into a bit of a lull for 30 minutes, then as the sun went down and it got darker and he went into a succession of 25-30 minutes of highly energetic soul creating/destroying techno destruction. The two guys next to me were looking over at me as if to say HOLY SHIT... this is blowing my mind. I concurred, and continued raving. Thanks Jeremy.

Friday night as most of the net already knows was a bust. I wont talk too much about that as I want things like this to happen more and dont want to get too down on the promoters as im sure they are going to have to deal with a pretty big shitstorm with VIP ticket holders shouting at them for the next few weeks. No one told me the party was moved to Rebel so i went back to my friends house in back of pratt inst. and went to bed. Woke up and visited with my cousin Spencer, ate some stewed goat and yellow rice and beans at Pena on De Kalb Ave.

When I arrived at coney island Afternoon Coffee was playing a live set and were keeping people grooving... they were loooking like they were having fun and seemed happy to be there.

I spoke with the nice folks at confined media from san fran. Wish I could remember your names... a few afternoon gin and tonics and i forget everything! They had a booth setup by the entrance that they paid 400$ for! ouch. Great meeting you if I dont see you again today.

shiny happy techno from titontin duvante

2008-09-06T22:52:00.004-04:00

always thought Titonton was a bit to the left with his production, this can be good and bad. im going through his back catalogue and just found "turn2look" from the refreak LP on the "design concept label and that is on a similar sonic spectrum as reverse cowboy. ChiDaro from the nippon connection on Das Modular's label also has this really playful sonic energy too. Playful warm synths, bouncy, and totally upbeat. Duvante, if his music is indicative of his personality must be pretty eccentric and happy... eclectic, perhaps a bit anal and a pleasure to be around, detail oriented and sometimes prone to bursting with feelings of ecstasy.

nice pep talk Mrs. Palin! I'm sold. Vote GOP cuz were teh energy conservatives

2008-09-03T21:27:00.002-04:00

"Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America’s energy problems - as if we all didn’t know that already. But the fact that drilling won’t solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all. Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we’re going to lay more pipelines...build more nuclear plants...create jobs with clean coal...and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources. We need American energy resources, brought to you by American ingenuity, and produced by American workers." - sarah palin

opal =

2008-08-16T19:41:00.003-04:00

A microscopic superlattice arrangement of silica microspherulites, each with a small central nano-nucleus, followed by Bragg diffraction of white light, gives precious opal its pseudochromatic ‘fire’. Pre-sedimentation heterogeneous microspherulite growth within siliceous groundwater takes place on a central radioactive catalyst core. Neutron activation and secondary ion spectroscopy (SIMS) of precious opal reveals thorium, uranium, lead, and anomalous concentrations of daughter nuclides from natural uranium fission. Gamma-ray radioactive logging of drill holes and opencut mine walls demonstrates natural radioactivity surrounding opal deposits, increasing in intensity towards the central precious opal zone. Case histories of new gemstone discoveries are described, and the high intrinsic value of this unique technique confirmed.

http://www.australiangemmologist.com.au/

buy this

2008-08-13T10:24:00.003-04:00

moments of zen

2008-08-12T17:20:00.007-04:00

The life of a freelancer

2008-08-07T13:01:00.003-04:00

Despite not having any benefits or a paycheck that is directly deposited on a bi-weekly basis freelancing is a great way to live. My recent jobs have been regularly arriving in my email inbox with directions exhorting me to a street address typically in New Hampshire or Vermont. These "missions" are sent from 1402 miles north-west of Boston. There lays a town called Eden Prairie Minnesota. In this town a company called BHI Corp. is nestled in a very normal looking office building just a few hundred meters from route 5 which inconsequently happens to be very close to the Minnesota Vikings training camp. Micah Garneau (a close friend of mine) is in the employ of this company and very often gives me jobs related to BHI customers in NH and VT. Thank you Micah!

Typically jobs for BHI are related to setting up a router/firewall and unhooking their expensive local ISP connection and installing a cheaper verizon or Covad alternative. Whenever I set up one of these stores they also become a free wifi hotspot. Take that starbucks. ITS FREE. HA. The remote access abilities of network admins now is pretty amazing. After setting up each router and connecting to the broadband connection BHI techs link in and start configuring anything they didn't pre-program into the asus routers on location in HQ. It's a pretty neat operation and allows me to travel around and see some pretty spots especially in vermont. Nashua and Manchester are alright but if you know these places, you'd probably agree you would rather be in Brattleboro or Burlington VT. That is... if you are anything like me.

Aside from that I am spending alot of time with my lady Heather, on Beacon Hill or at her place of work MIT. Hanging out and exploring MIT has been a thing of fascination for me as its a very stimulating area. Very intl, sciency, and actually quite pretty campus on the memorial drive side. The Lewis music library is fantastic and so is the humanities and science library. Wifi blankets the entire campus as an added plus so I sometimes sit outside and bang off resumes while looking for a "real" job.

I've been at this point in my life before and it definitely feels like I am in some sort of a circular holding pattern. Getting re-lodged in a corporate job seems like the next logical step if I am indeed cycling.

If you know me and you need to hire a fantastic out of work tech support rep feel free to call me!

nicely written peice by david pearce

2008-08-02T22:34:00.006-04:00

http://www.mdma.net/index.html

In Western culture, a capacity for reflective self-insight is not highly prized. Introspective genius and a talent for meditation aren't respected in either academia or business. Nothing in our education system is geared toward making young people feel that introspective self-analysis, enhanced self-awareness or personal growth matters in the slightest. How can they be tested, graded and quantified? What's their market value? Anyone in Western society with a tendency to quiet contemplation is likely to be stigmatised as lazy, feckless and unenterprising - unlike the sound and fury of the lionised Man Of Action, and his larger-than-life ego on whose life-energies lesser mortals may feed. In similar manner, our (limited) vision of future civilisations tends to focus on their technological marvels - and the supposed Darwinian dominance-battles of their science-fictional inhabitants - rather than on odysseys into the inner depths of their souls. Yet the design of long-acting entactogens - and their neurological analogues - should allow introspective depth and a capacity for higher-order self-reflection to be fabulously enriched as well. Tomorrow's counterparts of today's bunch of furtive adolescent introspectionists won't have to shuffle around faint little tickles of thought. Drugs to enrich self-insight and heighten self-reflection may eventually become commonplace. They may be distributed as freely as aspirin if not smarties; and prove safer in excess than either.

http://www.mdma.net/index.html

wifi radios/mp3 players i have known and loved.

2008-07-29T22:00:00.007-04:00

Bought the sansa connect 4gb in february and I've been liking the embedded wifi abilities. You are limited to the yahoo radio stations. The upside to that is they are surprisingly good. The next generation better cut that type of closed network shit out right now! the device doubles as hand held ssid browser, also showing the security status of each network. The WORST THING about this is the once again awful choice of going with yahoo music exclusively. filling up the base 4gb (2gb micro sd card slot inlcluded) requires you to put on an obnoxious media player akin to rhapsody's full version. I find that installing just the sansa restore utility alone lets you add files in a windows explorer environment which i prefer yes i detest itunes as well. my tiny mp3 player of choice is now foobar.

this ccrane radio with wifi also looks improves on my most favorite little tivoli radio by adding an unlocked wifi radio station browser with shitttttonnes of stations

"During our tests, we were able to easily tune in over 2,000 popular US radio stations. Just for fun, we tuned in some English stations from Norway, Germany, Argentina and more. As if that were not enough, the AE Wi-Fi Radio can even tune in to MP3, Real Media, and other WMA compatible audio files saved on your computer's hard drive — and it's all wireless!"

sometimes i wonder if i need to have 30,000 radio station options while showering or going to the loo... but then it might be fun.

developing story

2008-07-21T20:28:00.002-04:00

http://www.creditunionruse.com/
http://www.taxfoundation.org/press/show/216.html
http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/217.html

I have been wanting to leave key bank for years now and never cut the cord. Suffice to say I have gotten somewhere in the neghborhood of 50 overdrafts in the course of 5 years. Its my fault. I suck. BUT key bank sucks for not giving me overdraft protection. So there.

My master plan included getting a nice mom and pop credit union like my sister has. They would only hit me up for one overdraft when something like this comes along
BALANCE = -1
sandwhich 6$ at subway/ticket to movies 11$ at loews theatre/29.99 for cable bill from comcast
BALANCE = -47.99

if I was under 0 when these things cleared I would be in the hole 3x 33.00 + 47 = 146.00 for a very short 50$ loan.

MIT swapfest

2008-07-20T15:02:00.002-04:00

Stopped into this just before the last 3 people closed up their tables. What a great little collection of humanity this swapfest is. Cheap CHEAP CHEEEEEEEAP cables to be had here. If you ever need 100 feet of rca cable for 5-10$ this is the place to get it.

I will definitely be attending the next swapfest.

highlights:
a table brought by an ex printer engineer cum swapfest hocker. He had hundreds of motors and position sensing optical doohickeys. He had a lineup of motors all plugged in and spinning different test pattern papers on the tips of the motors. The market for this type of a person is so niche its scary.

read here from sukimons experience at a swapfest in 2006 which obviously had a bit more flavor to delight in.

http://www.sukimon.com/2006/09/yardsale-for-geeks-the-mit-swapfest/

-------------------------------------
This coming Sunday...

*** In our Traditional GARAGE and adjacent lot !!!! *****
so rain or shine or super heat the SWAP is ON !!!!

COMPUTERS - ELECTRONICS - HAM RADIO - COMPUTERS - ELECTRONICS

SWAPFEST all SUMMER at MIT
September 16th 2007
9AM-2PM

Come to the Albany St garage for a great SWAP - plenty of free parking.

BUY SELL or SWAP almost anything Electronic

MIT's electronics and ham radio SWAPFEST will take
place on the third Sunday of each month this summer,
April thru October.

There is tailgate space for over 600 sellers and
free, off-street parking for >2000 cars!

Buyers admission is $5 (you get $1 off if
you have a Harvard or MIT ID) and sellers
spaces are $20 for the first and $15 for
each additional at the gate.

The swap will be held at the corner of Albany and
Main streets in Cambridge; right in the Kendall
Square area from 9AM to 2PM, with sellers set-up
time starting at 7AM.

*** Attention Sellers ***
Prepaid vendors.. Season Pass or monthly,
will be admitted FIRST.
Separate lines will form prior to gate opening
for prepaid and nonprepaid vendors

See http://www.swapfest.us for selling info.

!! RAIN or SHINE !! Have no fear of rain, a covered
well illuminated tailgate area is available for all
sellers (6'8" clearance).

Talk-in: 145.23- (PL 88.5) W1BOS/R and
W1XM/R-449.725/444.725 (PL 114.8/2A).

Sponsors: MIT Electronics Research Society
MIT UHF Repeater Association (W1XM)
MIT Radio Society (W1MX)
Harvard Wireless Club (W1AF)

For more info / advanced reservations 617 253 3776

********** $1 buyers discount with hard copy of this notice ************

*******************************************************************************
Steve Finberg W1GSL w1...@mit.edu
PO Box 82 MIT Br Cambridge MA 02139-7082 617 258 3754
*******************************************************************************

weird folders appearing in my external drive

2008-07-08T00:46:00.003-04:00

two of the folders have i386 folders in the first level

the folder marked beae3801848e7b5288c4d1055f2eda contains a exe called mrtstub which apparently has something to do with the microsoft malicious software removal tool OR is spyware. Not sure which is which yet. If anyone knows the deal please comment!

went running on the charles today with Martin and Cleo. so sticky...

also interviewed at micro center in cambridge. wish me luck!

MIT students create "wal mart" cheap solar concentrator

2008-06-21T11:33:00.002-04:00

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/solar-dish-0618.html

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Didn't Mythbusters/that guy on the internet/everyone in the 80s do this already?
A: YES! We're following in the footsteps of many brilliant people. Our innovation is to make them so cheap and easy that they can finally be used across the US, and eventually the world.

Q: Isn't it dangerous?
A: Anything that produces a lot of energy, from cars to wind turbines, is somewhat dangerous. However, the focus point is so concentrated and so high off the ground that the danger of a person wandering into it is minimal.

Q: Can you put solar panels on the end of it?
A: Normal solar panels couldn't handle that much sunlight. However, there is research into high concentration PV, and our system provides the unusually constant flux required to operate them efficiently.

Q: Are you going to use these in the developing world?
A: Because of the simplicity of the design, and use of widely available materials, the Dish has huge potential to address the energy problems of the rapidly developing third world. However, To get the business off the ground, we're focusing on large US installations in the short term.

fast food map.

2008-06-10T17:34:00.004-04:00

interpret as you see fit

-
erik perkins 1999

http://www.fastfoodmaps.com/static.html